The Red Chord - It Runs in the Family (Metal Blade/Black Market Activities 2007)
The Red Chord - Prey For Eyes - Metal Blade/Black Market Activities
It's been obvious from 2002's Fused Together in Revolving Doors (Robotic Empire) that there's something different . . . something not quite right about the Red Chord. As with many debuts, the listener has no idea what they're in for. With the knowledge that then-drummer Mike Justian has previously played for lesser-known hardcore outfit Hassan I Sabbah, I eagerly listened to Fused repeatedly, allowing lyrics like, "I'd like nothing better than to sever your head and set that pig on fire" and "it's not going to be all right; it's not going to be OK," sink in and do their dirty work. Plus, the album was a lesson in making hardcore-laced metal songs interesting, saving the sweet, crooning choruses for radio bands and relying instead on musicianship and unbridled anger to get their points across.
Fused Together made quite a splash in the "extreme" music world, with Metal Blade snatching up the band and vocalist Guy Kozowyk landing his label Black Market Activities a distribution deal in the process. Three years and a lineup change later (which found Justian leaving the band), the band released their second album, Clients, a loose concept album centered around various run-ins with regular crazies Kozowyk encountered while working as a pharmacist. Songs like "Antman" and "Black Santa" are clearly based off nicknames given to frequent visitors of the pill counter, which added a nice human element to Clients, along with the continued barrage of riffs, blastbeats, and bizarre lyrics ("I'm almost sorry that I must do this to get my name in lights").
Two years have passed since Clients, and the Red Chord have managed to keep their music as interesting as it was five years ago, which may not seem like a long time, but may as well be an eternity in the metal/hardcore world, where debut albums sprout up and give birth to carbon-copy discographies all the fucking time. Hatebreed, anyone? 2007's Prey For Eyes again takes the band's music one step further (and introduces yet another drummer), creating an album that's destructive, musical artwork.
Beginning with the minute-long frenzy "Film Critiques and Militia Men," the Red Chord showcase every tempo from slow, beatdown riffs to disjointed, Discordance Axis-style blasting, with the guitar line inching along and the drums grinding away with little regard for the stringed instruments' tempo. This pattern continues over the course of Prey For Eyes, each song a well-organized outburst of ideas somehow corralled into a cohesive but demanding listen. Themes appear throughout the duration of songs like "Send the Death Storm," popping up in one form or another but backed by a different drum pattern or second-guitar accent, evolving slowly. Before you know it, the song has moved from the beginning to the point of no return.
So finely are the Red Chord's songs constructed that it's never too obvious where a verse, chorus, bridge—or anything else—begins, ends, heads off to, comes back from, or when it completely abandons you. The pieces of each song meld seamlessly into one another, adding to the band's steamroller effect. This density, while appreciated for its force, can be overwhelming with the guitar and bass somewhat buried (of course . . . this is metal!) below Kozowyk's various vocal variants (low, high, yelled, gurgled) and newest drummer Brad Fickeisen's incredibly clean-sounding drum kit. There's plenty of crunch when the guitars are chugging along, but more intricate elements of the faster riffs sometimes prove to be a conundrum when the track's setting moves from "ear chop" to "aural puree." Minus a pair of headphones, the listener just needs to concentrate on the music instead of letting it ramble on in the background.
And therein lies the balance of a good, technical metal/hardcore album: forcing you to listen closely while at the same time doing its best to make sure you feel as uncomfortable as possible: "Thanks for listening, hope this hurts!" The Red Chord generally find this balance, but go one step further, letting you catch your breath with the mid-paced instrumental "It Came From Over There," just to knock it back out of you with "Intelligence Has Been Compromised."
The album closes like both previous Red Chord records have, with a six-minute-plus track of slow-building termination (although Fused Together's last track was a noise piece that seemed more like a final "fuck off, we're really trying to decimate you" to the listener), and ends with what sounds like a funeral march on the snare drum. Yes, you’ve killed me . . . I appreciate the built-in memorial service.